Many people these days associate the use of beads in prayer as a strictly Roman Catholic practice, the Holy Rosary. The rosary is a cycle of prayers that focus on the mysteries of the faith, the Apostles’ Creed, “Our Father,” “Gloria” and “Hail Mary.”
But you don’t have to be Catholic to pray with beads. Many Orthodox Christians use a prayer rope, a wool or silk loop with 100, 50, 33 or 10 knots and beads in it. A cross usually begins and ends the loop. The prayer rope is used to keep track of the number of times a person prays the Jesus Prayer or other prayers.
Whether you’re Catholic, Orthodox, or decidedly unorthodox in your practices of prayer, you might find praying with a beaded or knotted strand to be helpful. Here are seven ways of praying with beads you might try:
1) Try a book.
Use a book, such as Praying with Beads: Daily Prayers for the Christian Year by Nan Lewis Doerr and Virginia Stem Owens. It consists of a compelling and instructive introduction followed by morning, noon and evening prayers for use with a string of prayer beads. The prayers follow the Christian calendar throughout the liturgical year.
2) Get crafty.
Pray while creating a prayer rope. If you’re a knitter or crafty type, try making prayer ropes as you pray. (One book, Bead and a Prayer: A Beginner’s Guide to Protestant Prayer Beads by Kristen E. Vincent, offers instructions for making prayer ropes).
3) Intercede for others.
Intercede for your family members and friends, one by one, as you count off the knots or beads on a prayer rope (this might be easier with a ten-knot rope, which is often small enough to be worn as a bracelet).
4) Create your own cycle.
Develop your own, tailor-made “cycle” for praying. For example, you might use the four cycles of seven in a 33- or 34-knot prayer rope to rotate through a pattern of adoration, confession, listening, thanks, petition, intercession and praise.
5) Focus on one person.
Similarly, you might use the knots or beads in a prayer rope to focus on one person (or a few). While touching each knot or bead, you might pray for their health, marriage, children, job, finances,
6) Pray the fruits of the Spirit.
Use a 10-knot prayer rope to pray the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) for your loved ones, perhaps starting or ending with the Jesus Prayer or the Lord’s Prayer.
7) Save it for special seasons
You might not choose to use prayer beads or a prayer rope all the time; you may want to pull it out for special seasons, such as Advent or Lent or for people’s birthdays or when you want to focus your prayers on a specific need.
Try it. Praying with beads might do something new for your prayer life. And who doesn’t need that?
